Image processing is a form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame, and the output is either image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image. Forms of image processing include face detection, feature detection, medical image processing, computer vision (extraction of information from an image by a computer), microscope image processing, etc.
Image resolution relates to the detail that an image possesses. For satellite images, the resolution generally correlates to the area represented by each pixel. Generally speaking, an image is considered to be more accurate and detailed as the area represented by each pixel is decreased. As used herein, the term images include digital images, film images, and/or other types of images. Cameras taking pictures from great distances, such as aerial photos, may not obtain detailed information about the subject matter. Consequently, subtle or detail information are not present in the images.
When an image is captured by a monochrome camera, a single charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor is used to form an image via the light intensity projected onto the sensor.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,536,012, to Meyers et al., entitled “Entangled Quantum Communications and Quantum Imaging,” there is disclosed, inter alia, a Quantum Imaging System (see Col. 8, line 50, et seq.) in which the sender sends an image of an image mask using entangled photons and coincidence measurements to a receiver. The system differs from the conventional quantum imaging set-up in that polarization beam splitters are placed in the path of the photons to provide two channels for each of the sender and the receiver, as shown in FIG. 4 of the '012 patent. On the sender's side, a photon beam is split by a beam splitter into first and second sub-beams. The first sub-beam is passed through a mask 164 which creates the image which is directed through a beam splitter 166 to bucket detectors 168, 170, which are operatively connected to a coincidence circuit. The second sub-beam is transmitted to the receiver without ever passing through the mask 164. In the embodiment of FIG. 4 of the '012 Patent, the receiver receives the second sub-beam and an image of the mask is constructed based upon photon coincident measurements composited from two photon detectors 168 and 170, also referred to a bucket detectors. The image of a mask is transmitted via coincidences and the photons transmitting the image have never encountered the image mask. Because of the somewhat puzzling nature or circumstances of the transmission, the process has been dubbed by some as “Ghost Imaging,” while others have explained the effects as resulting from the quantum properties of light.